The present invention relates to an apparatus for sampling molten metal.
It is known to sample a bath of molten metal for purposes of analyzing its content. For this purpose a sampling device has been used having two joined half shells made of refractory ceramic material and having cavities for receiving the samples. The half shells are interconnected by means of a tube. Preferably, this tube is made of cardboard and is used for handling the sampling device, particularly for submerging the device into the metal bath and for removing a sample therefrom.
An example of such a device is described in German Offenlegungsschrift No. 25 19 957. Conventionally, pin-shaped and disk-shaped samples are obtained by such a device. Another such sampling device is described by us in U.S. Pat. No. 4,048,857 issued Sept. 20, 1977. Upon sampling molten steel, particularly from a converter holding unkilled steel, it is necessary to quiet the steel in the sampling device by an agent binding oxygen, preferably aluminum. In addition, it is required that the agent for killing the steel in the obtained sample be extremely uniformly distributed so that errors are avoided in the spectrum analysis test conducted at a later time.
The known sampling devices do not satisfy the present day high quality requirements.